Saturday 14 March 2015

Guest Blog 32

The rumours continue

One of the greatest problem that confronts the new owners of the snappily titled Community Rehabilitation Companies is rumour control. Six weeks into this new industry, most of us are still waiting to find out what any of it actually means and what is the answer to the redundancy related questions of how many and when (rather than if). 


Provider ‘briefings’ are proving as useful as MoJ briefings in terms of giving people the clarity they seek and the spinning is achieving very little other than leaving us increasingly giddy. The reality is that the MoJ ‘briefings’ and ministerial statements in Parliament have become so preposterous that it is almost impossible to take anything they say seriously. The knock on effect of this, however, is that the ‘briefings’ provided by the providers, because of their lack of content and depth, are increasingly being viewed in a similar light.

Probation staff are generally highly competent at unravelling the minimisations, justifications and distortions created by offenders seeking to ennoble their offending behaviour and mitigate their culpability. Using those skills to pick apart the information or lack thereof being provided by the MoJ or by the ‘newbies’ is all but unconscious and recognising the subtext merely routine. 


The absence of information is, as Probation practitioners (or is that ‘responsible’ practitioners?) well know, information in it’s own right. The unwillingness of an individual to provide information tells you an awful lot about the nature of that information and the motives behind its being withheld. It is, consequently, apparent to anyone with half a brain that the workforce are being left in the dark because
  • The providers do not know the answers and, in many cases, didn’t even know there was a question;
  • The high level models contained in the successful bids do not fit the real world; 
  • The processes they had in mind have not been risk assessed in the real world and are likely to put offenders, staff, victims and the public at risk; 
  • The ‘expertise’ of the partnerships is, in general, more rhetorical than real and they are furiously recruiting a legion of inexperienced and often unsuitable people to fill the posts; 
  • The bidders are beginning to realise that they have been misinformed in the procurement process; 
  • The MoJ has shown itself all but incapable of foreseeing the debacle that even the lowliest Probation worker saw coming a mile off; 
  • The IT systems that have been poorly managed since their inception are proving to be impervious to the changes necessary to facilitate their ‘home-working’ operating model. 
It is this last rumour that needs consideration at the moment. Rumour has it that the technology required to allow provider’s own systems to ‘talk to’ nDelius, the main case management software for the entire operation, doesn’t work. 

The inability of the MoJ to give anyone a straight answer means that some of the ‘facts’ around the issue are speculative but, in a nutshell, until the issue is resolved, the providers are irrevocably tied into the Steria IT infra-structure. This, in turn, means that not only is the proposed ‘flexible working’ (working alone from your car with an ipad) potentially on hold but that the CRCs will be unable to move out of the buildings where they are currently located until the MoJ have resolved the ‘bug’ that is currently exercising them is resolved. Rumour has it that this could be many months. This will have financial implications for both the CRCs and the NPS.

Alarming Increases in both the prison populations and the use of conditional discharges in favour of community disposals, the removal of existing providers from Prisons and Probation premises before replacement services are available, resource centres being set up without any resources in evidence – the list of casualties is growing by the hour. Most of these are down to the recklessness of the Secretary of State and the MoJ and it is obvious to anyone with half an MBA that this is what happens when you proceed to change on this scale without proper pilots. No-one knows what is happening but, more worryingly, nobody knows what is going to happen as these ‘unforeseen’ consequences manifest themselves.

Grayling has opened Pandora’s Box and the new providers are as aghast at what is coming out of it as the rest of us are. Attempts to smooth the process with patronising and disingenuous briefings that ignore the presenting evidence are increasingly futile and the unwillingness of all parties to accept that they have done irrevocable damage to the ability of the Criminal Justice System to manage offenders in the community is really starting to make them look more than a little foolish. The sooner they cotton on to that fact, the sooner we can start trying to put this thing back together again.

Ishmael.

27 comments:

  1. Excellent blog Ishmael! I know that at least one CRC has had the job evaluation discussion ( consultation) with the Trade Unions so the process of 'rationalisation' has started. The trouble with the whole TR mess is that so much is going wrong it has turned into white noise to the MOJ. Or perhaps they are deliberately asking questions about processes that ensure they receive only the answers they want.
    There is a growing realisation, as you point out, that what CRCs have, must change quickly now to ensure the business model works. The CRCs are now in the driving seat so expect so pressure shifted upwards to the MOJ ( deservedly so).
    I understand the question of business premises is a major issue in terms of cost and business efficiency. For new business models to work the split must be more literal - to allow CRCs to operate in their existing co locations was a fundamental error.

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  2. I know that one CRC has a significant number of new PSOs because all of their POs have gone to the NPS and all their experienced PSOs are NPS trainees. Many of these new PSOs are still on their Probation period and cannot be confirmed because their caseloads are in such a mess but no-one knows whether it is the PSOs or the system that is at fault!!

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  3. In the meantime, get those contracts signed pronto!!! (Mirror)

    "Jeremy Hunt’s claims that the NHS is not for sale lay in tatters last night after he signed the largest privatisation deal in history.

    The Health Secretary, who has repeatedly denied health services are being siphoned off to private firms under this Government, faced furious reactions as the £780million deal was revealed.

    The sales to a total of 11 private firms, some with dubious records, are intended to help hospitals tackle the backlog of patients waiting for surgery and tests.

    Heart, joint and a variety of operations will be carried out, as well as scans, X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Under the deal struck by the NHS Supply Chain, many services will be provided in mobile units, rather than hospitals.

    A NHSBSA spokesman said: “This was introduced to provide a central point from which mobile and strategic clinical services could be procured efficiently.

    “NHS organisations can choose to utilise this route to market if needed saving time and resources, by not having to undertake formal public procurement locally.”

    But Dr Clive Peedell, a cancer doctor and co-leader of the National Health Action party, which launched its general election campaign today, said: “This government has spent the past four and half years starving the NHS of cash.

    “Now it’s putting nearly £800million into the pockets of private companies to try and clear a backlog of its own making.

    “And it has picked some of the very firms who have been criticised for poor patient care. How much clearer could it be this government is so wedded to privatisation, that it is willing to risk patient care?”

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    1. No surprises here. It's what they are about.

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    2. Ref anon 7.33. How 'new' is this news? When were they signed? I thought we were in a 'lie down' period prior to the election during which it is my understanding that no new contracts can be awarded by Govt.
      Deb

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    3. 12 March 2015

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    4. Yeah, but rules, such as paying tax and not punching your Producer only apply to the little people.

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  4. patient care, public safety...on and on we go.....profit for shareholders that's what matters to the Tories.Now let's get them out.

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  5. I have lost count of the number of 'briefings' emailed which contain lots of big pictures of shiny unknown people no doubt being paid a great deal of hard working tax payers money to do god knows what and tell me absolutely nothing in terms of what I need to know. I don't need to know their back story, what they enjoyed about Uni or how they are bubbling over with enthusiasm at the destruction of probation services. The self adoration is offensive.

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  6. The blog is entirely accurate on the issues of IT and comments about premises...to such an extent that the CRC plans will be put back by "years"!
    As a consequence the CRC will have to pay larger fees for longer and so will seek alternatives for saving money. The obvious significant cost is staffing and so there is likely to be deeper staff reductions to save money. This is horrendous for those waiting for outcome decisions and should also be a worry to those who have transferred to NPS too , there is little shelter there.
    There is a still plenty to be angry about , there is still plenty to fight for , so don't imagine this mess is yet a done deal.

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    1. It's even worse than that. CRCs needed to implement their new business model very quickly in order to get it embedded in time to achieve the PbR outcomes they need. In almost all cases, the business model was predicated on the CRC's premises strategy. This would (almost everywhere) have involved leaving the shared sites and setting up in premises of their own choice. The various targets and penalties within PbR are challenging enough as it is, without a CRC being hobbled by an enforced stay at sites that make it harder for them to operate the way they'd choose. They should have checked all this out before signing. But they couldn't.

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  7. Parliament has been sold a duck, and the CrC's (fools to have been taken in, but that's what happens when your vision is clouded by £ signs). Sadly,they'll never admit it and will continue to shove square pegs into round holes - fuckwits. However, GC may be losing sleep as he has royally fucked off the wrong people, the private companies!

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  8. The IT failure to 'system link' I was told was known about at the point of sale but overlooked as essentially it means that all of the proposed 'community working plans' were doomed before they got off the drawing board-everyone in IT knew it but no-one would listen or chose to ignore....

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  9. who has decided that in CRC the deadline for ISPs is now 10 days. how come it was previously 15 days with half the caseload but all of a sudden our caseloads have doubled and the deadline for ISPs cut by a third - how can this be possible??

    We've also been told under no circumstances can we be late with them - no professional judgements to inform the assessment - they must be added in an update. I and my colleagues feel like we cant do the job anymore its almost like we're being pushed to breaking point so that we walk. 8 hours overtime I had to do last week just to get through the workload and we're exhausted.

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    1. Completely agree with you Anon 10:30 it is impossible to maintain this for any length of time especially at the rate new orders are being allocated, along with those being released from custody. I am spending even more time behind my computer than I did previously - its a nightmare and this week I have been close to walking.

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    2. Only walk at 5pm, same as I do. I know it might be easier said than done, until TR I regularly put in at least a hours overtime everyday, mainly paperwork as I spent the day doing something constructive such as working with clients...you know, the proper stuff. Now, come 5pm it's computer off, coat on and off out the door. I assure you the first time you try it you WILL struggle, each day gets easier. My work/life balance has improved considerably, I no longer have the 2pm heartburn I used to get and whilst it's still stressful and demanding, I do feel a lot better in myself.

      You going off on the sick is not helping anyone and if you think for one moment that your boss cares that he/she was the cause of it then you are sadly mistaken.

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    3. anon 13:08 I posted the post you replied to - this must be standard practice across Purple Futures CRCs - I feel so upset that I cant even see my workload management tool. I am obviously overworked but cant prove it - it's so wrong because i'm going like the clappers trying to do everything when the reality is I am on mission impossible. This is so unfair - we need sight of our workload management tool as our office are going crazy its like we're deliberately being kept in the dark. The stark reality is some staff are starting to suffer mental health problems, interrupted sleep, agitation; anxiety and I tell you what if ever there is a suicide as someone's been worked to breaking point CRC will have to answer to the Coronor and with the Probation family you upset one of us you upset us all - this will not be brushed under the carpet. CRCs get your act together!!

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    4. People don't leave bad companies, they leave bad managers!

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    5. I wasn't even aware the deadline had changed, when did this happen and why weren't we informed.

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    6. Posted on behalf of a third party:-

      I am concerned that colleagues are stating they are having to do the whole oasys assessment in 10 days, if their bosses in CRC /NPS read PI58/2014 it only mentions in section 2.3 that 'a plan' has to be completed. This does not have to be the oasys sentence plan. WWM CRC have provided a 2 page plan on Delius for us to complete. And completing this in 10 days is a reasonable request.

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  10. Do the CDC's have an overtime arrangement? If not, work only your contracted hours, don' t try to fix it, 's broken beyond repair!

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    1. we only have flexitime so I can take time off but it's impossible to use that analogy - the job does not work like that and we are working with real people who need queries and problems dealing with. I've got someone been on licence for 5 years with no issues and all of a sudden he wants me to delve into why he's paying POCA £70 each month as a Standing Order when he did an extra 3 years porridge. Seriously I must have the most demanding, timeconsuming caseload!!

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  11. If you read any textbooks on management, it is always made clear that autocratic approaches only work in the short term. After that, they become self-defeating. Sickness absences rise, recruitment and retention become problematic, the best people leave etc. Sound familiar?

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  12. To those on the previous day's blog stating they don't always undertake children's services checks I say two things. One - have you heard of statutory obligation? Two - you are the types of people who let the scandal of Rotherham and Oxford happen.

    You are paid to protect the public. It's one flipping form. If there is nothing to find out you've fulfilled your legal and moral obligation. If there is something you can work with other agencies to support your client and their family.

    Simples. Anyone who thinks or does otherwise does probation a disservice and should not be in employment.

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    1. How simplistic ,, it would seem that you may be one of those who consider that filing in the form or making the call is job done, when in reality it is far from it. Your comments and tone indicate you to be one of those who are responsible for probation sinking to the low it is now.

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    2. I specifically reference that where there is info or issues you can then work with colleagues from other agencies to support your client and their family. Can you not read?

      And I've boiled it down to the simplicity above because others have referenced only doing such checks when their intuition has told them to. And that's where the Baby P, Rotherham and Oxford cases occur.

      Or are you one of those who believes you know best?

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    3. "I specifically reference that where there is info or issues" - that is NOT what others have been railing against in their posts. The reaction has been against the blanket referral for ALL cases. As you so delicately ask, can YOU not read?

      Such blanket referrals 'clog up' & overwhelm the safeguarding system, possibly leading to cases being handled less rigorously, possibly leading to critical information being skimmed over, possibly leading to the likelihood of serious matters being missed.

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